Yomi's Morbid Hunger
by Fuzzy Necromancer
Summary: Yomi joins the ranks of the undead, and her friends are on the menu. More horror-leaning than humorous, but not without a trace of playfulness.
1. Chapter 1

**I**

Koyomi Mizuhara was dead.

All her classmates knew was that she hadn't showed up for school today. She had been complaining about feeling under the weather for a while, and she was prone to catching colds. Chiyo had called to see how she was doing, but when the phone kept ringing, she decided that Yomi must be trying to sleep and hung up. Tomo didn't call because there was no point in mocking somebody who was home sick when all they were missing was another day of English tense-distinctions.  
Yomi's parents had departed a few days ago due to a complex problem involving a rare species of fish and surgery, and they wouldn't be back for a few days.

Koyomi Mizuhara lay on her bed peacefully. The painfully unfunny banter of radio personalities Nakku and Mitchy did not disturb her. The sun crossed the sky without getting a single beam of light through the closed curtains. The unread diet books on her desk would have to gather dust a while longer.

She kept her composure well. Her pale skin was unmarred by any tinge of purple or green. Her digestive track was empty from days of diet-fasting, so no final excretion fouled her clothes. A wasp crawled across her staring eye and tentatively poked its feelers in her open mouth, seeking some last morsel trapped between her front teeth, but it did not discomfort her.

Her last moments had been sweet as the rich foods she struggled against, and painful as salt on an open wound. They had left only four sharp little holes in the flesh of her arm, but no greater signs of violence ruined her cooling body.

Around five in the afternoon, Yomi lost her composure. The methane gases produced by her body shutting down gave vent, and she belched and farted. The wasp was dislodged by the eruption of foul air, and departed from the room. Her cheeks flushed with blood sinking from her nose and temples, as if embarrassed by the outburst.

Night fell.

Koyomi Mizuhara groaned, stretched, and rubbed her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

Yomi was groggy and confused. Her brain had been dead for twenty-four hours, and it was hard to get thoughts in order without firing neurons and intact synapses to channel them through.

She pulled on her glasses and got ready for school. She filed away last night's homework and textbooks into a backpack. She worked through the daily routine with mindless regularity until she tried to brush her teeth.

Something was wrong. She was at the sink, and the toothbrush was full, but she couldn't continue properly. The waking dream of a morning before school evaporated.

Yomi was pressed against the sink. She was close enough to feel cold porcelain against the tiny bulge in her waist that qualified her as "fat" in the social circles of Japanese high school. Why did the mirror show only a toothbrush hovering in the air?

This meant something. It was important. She struggled to think, but her mind was in disarray, and the complex mass of nerve tissue in her skull was nothing but five pounds of useless meat.

Yomi brushed her teeth anyway. She could find her on mouth without seeing it reflected, and if there four teeth that poked out more than they should, no matter.

She turned to the scale. This was another part of her morning ritual. She dreaded it and loathed it, but ritual was important.

She stepped on and looked at the number below. The dial spun, quivered, and came to rest at zero.

Yomi blinked and let out a sigh of relief. She had lost weight.  
The number "zero" flashed through her mind again in lines of white-hot fire.  
She stepped off the scale. She stepped on the scale again. The needle shuddered, but rose only a fraction above zero. She realized that the sigh of relieve had been the first breath she'd taken all night, and the startled blink was the first time she'd moved her eyelids.

Something was very odd. She didn't panic, like Chiyo. She didn't jump to sudden conclusions, like Tomo. She got out a sheet of paper, a ballpoint pen, and sorted out her memories and the odd little things.

When she set it all down on paper, she remembered the things she had been told to forget. She remembered the blue, pointy-eared freak, clawing outside her window. She remembered the beautiful shining eyes that sang in her soul, that made her invite the visitor in over the past three nights. She remembered how the pain of fangs in her artery was delicious, not a sexual thrill, but a feeling like the runner's high, or that dreamy pleasure that waited for you on when the hunger pangs gave up. It was a pleasure that didn't erase pain, but lifted you up to float above it.

The voice had told her that what happened each night was only a dream, and should be treated as such. The voice had said she must obey it when she returned, for it was her murderer and her mother. The voice insisted that she must go out into the night, seek out her loved ones, and satisfy her desires. She had promised to do all of that, because the eyes were so lovely and cold.

Yomi had only briefly touched upon the realm that was her morbid namesake. The beasts that guarded the underworld had called her impure, and she soared back to her cold flesh with them nipping at her heels. Before, the thought would have enthralled her, a first-hand confirmation of the illusive spiritual mysteries beyond the material world.

Now, all she cared about was the hunger. It was a hunger beyond any craving she'd experienced near the end of a crash diet. She was thirsty too. Hunger and thirst were united with a third yearning, something so sharper and fiercer than any sexual lust.

Yomi shattered her window. The glass shards slashed through her skin, but they drew no blood and caused no pain.


	3. Chapter 3

**III**

Yomi drifted through the air like a leaf on the wind. Hated gravity, the force that had pressed her down on the scale, and clung to her tightly after every post-diet binge, could not touch her now.

"Who should I visit first?" she asked the night wind and the impassive stars.

One part of her cried out to stay away from her friends, to find some raw hamburger or catch a squirrel if she had to, but to keep from harming anyone she cared about. It was the part that cheered up Chiyo when she was sad, dutifully did every homework assignment, and counted calories.

Another part of her mind roared with hunger and thirst. It was the part that whispered of steaming ramen and tasty treats filled with bean-paste during her low-carb diets.

A new part of her mind insisted that she obey the terrible clawed thing with such sweet cold eyes, no matter what it asked.

Yomi thought about Chiyo, tucked away in her big fancy house. The first part of her mind raised a racket. The third part urged her on. The second part said that it was a good idea, but she might still be hungry.  
Yomi remembered the flight back to her body from the underworld. She remembered one of the beasts, a great swath of orange, with two suckerless tentacles, stubby legs almost identical in shape two its ears, that glowed with violence and rage. It had warmed her not to harm its daughter.

Her mind was made up. She passed Chiyo's house by with a sigh of longing.

If not Chiyo, then who? Sakaki? Perhaps. She was pale, probably not too rich, but there had to be plenty to drink in that well-developed body of hers. She would look the part wonderfully once Yomi had shared her pain and longing with her. She didn't know where Sakaki's house was though, and again her inner self railed against such an atrocity.

It was pretty late now. Everyone would be asleep. She needed an invitation to enter, and if they didn't wake up when she called them, she'd be out of luck.

There was one person who would be up even at this late hour, reading manga, playing video games, amusing herself with anything but productive schoolwork. The voice of hunger urged her on, singing praises of the rich, energetic body full to bursting with life to sate her thirst. The voice of the one who had taken her in the night agreed. She scanned her soul for any twinge of conscience, any guilt or horror at the predatory act she was contemplating, and found none.


	4. Chapter 4

**IV**

"I can't resist you," the sparkly-eyed schoolboy moaned. "I've never met a man so strong, so exotic, so dangerous. You're like my own personal brand of heroine."

"Shut up and bend over, you mouth Semi," the dark, stylish, twenty-year-old snapped.

Tomo was torn away from her manga by a tapping at her window. "Be there in just a second," she shouted, as she hastily dressed and wiped her hands off with a tissue.

She stumbled through the piles of empty wrappers, DVDs, half-eaten food, and well-thumbed manga that cluttered her room.

Her friend Yomi was standing outside the window, scratching the glass impatiently.

"Let me in, Tomo," she growled.

"Why are you coming over in the middle of the night?" Tomo asked, frowning. There was something wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"I forgot to give you some of my homework," Yomi said quickly.

"Why don't you have your backpack with you then?" Tomo asked.

Yomi reflexively clenched her fist. "I've, um, got it memorized. Now let me in or I will never let you copy my notes again."

Tomo blanched. "Okay okay! No need to get nasty!"

She opened the window. "Come in already!"

When Yomi stepped inside her room, Tomo realized what had been nagging at her mind. "My room is on the second floor."

Yomi grinned at her, baring four long, hollow, fangs. She licked her lips with a dry, purple, tongue that was far too pointy and too long.

"Hey Tomo, guess what? I've found a new diet."

Tomo's eyes grew small. A heavy bead of sweat dangled on her brow. "So, you decided to dress early for the haunted house at our next cultural festival?"

Yomi stretched languidly, extending her pointy nails. She reached back with one arm and snapped her own neck. Then she scrunched her shoulders, and her head straightened up with a sickening pop.

"This new diet is very effective," she said, in a bland, casual tone of voice. "I've given up beef, chicken, pork, rice, vegetables, and noodles, but I really think I can stick too it."

Tomo inched back and rubbed her neck. "Yomi, please don't hurt me. We've been friends since elementary school!"

Yomi raised an eyebrow. "You've been annoying me, teasing me about my weight, and acting like an idiot since elementary school." She stepped forward.

Tomo stepped backwards. "I admit it! I've been a real jerk to you! I'm sorry I called you fat! I'm sorry I went to Magical Land when you were sick! I'm sorry I put live eels in your-"

"Wait, that was YOU?!" Yomi snarled. "I just thought Osaka put them there by mistake!"

Tomo blanched. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry for every time I called you jelly rolls! I'm sorry I told you'd never get a boyfriend because you've got too much blubber for a guy to get to third base with you! I'm sorry I called you an idiot for trusting me to record a TV show for you! I'm sorry for everything!"

Yomi hesitated. "I'm still going to eat you and love every second of it," she said curtly.

"Well, that's okay, I was just distracting long enough so I could grab this STAKE!" Tomo said. She grabbed the impromptu weapon and thrust straight at Yomi's heart.


	5. Chapter 5

**V**  
Yomi stumbled back, her ribs cracking from the impact.

Tomo looked at the frying pan in her hand. "What the heck? I must have grabbed the wrong tool."

Yomi's nails sunk into Tomo's wrist, and the frying pan dropped to the floor.

"Please don't bite me! I've got really high blood sugar! I'll be way too fattening! Bite Chiyo instead! I'll bet she tastes delicious, and she's small, so there's less calories! AAAAH!"

Tomo screamed as she felt four fangs slide into her arm. They pushed and wiggled into her flesh until the hollow tubes struck artery.

Tomo felt the pain, and the shock of pleasure. It reminded her a little of how she felt when she leaned up against the washing machine, but ten times better. At the same time, she could feel Yomi's fangs digging so far into her flesh they poked the arm bones, and it really hurt.

She could feel her life slipping away. Yomi slurped it up with more enthusiasm than she'd shown at the all-you-can-eat crab buffet.

_I'm going to die,_ Tomo thought. She struggled and whimpered, clawing at the face. Yomi lifted her glasses and looked Tomo straight in the eye. Tomo had never realized what beautiful eyes Yomi had, all red whites and irises, with yellow pupils, so bright and deep. Tomo stopped struggling.

Yomi felt Tomo go limp as her lifeblood ebbed. It was sweeter than any high-calorie treat she'd ever tasted and more satisfying than a can of victory juice after the sports festival. It was full of the mindless, indirected enthusiasm, the idiotic lust for live that was the quintessence of Tomo.

Tomo raised her head. "Heeey Yomi? I just realized something. I'm gonna be a vampire now! That's gonna be so cool! I'll be able to fly around all night, and bite people, and we can still be friends!"

Yomi kept sucking as Tomo rambled.

"This is going to be awesome! We'll be best friends forever Yomi! You and me, for thousands and thousands of years! Won't that be awesome?"

Yomi froze in midsuck. She carefully pulled Tomo's arm out of her mouth. She walked into the bathroom, got out some bandages, and sealed up the bloody punctures her teeth had left. She wiped some blood from the corner of her mouth, and jumped out the window.

_I'll go see if Kagura is still up,_ Yomi thought.


End file.
